I'm a home grown American citizen, 53, registered Democrat all my life. Before the last presidential election I registered as a Republican because I no longer felt the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. Now I no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me. There must be someone. Please tell me who you are. Please stand up and tell me that you are there and that you're willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please stand up now. You might ask yourself what my views and issues are that I would horribly feel so disenfranchised by both major political parties. What kind of nut job am I? Will you please tell me?

Well, these are briefly my views and issues for which I seek representation:

One, illegal immigration. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S., I'm not a racist. This isn't to be confused with legal immigration.

Two, the TARP bill, I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you no, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. Freeze, repeal.

Three: Czars, I want the circumvention of our checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution and honor it.

Four, cap and trade. The debate on global warming is not over. There is more to say.

Five, universal healthcare. I will not be rushed into another expensive decision. Don't you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night and then go on break. Slow down!

Six, growing government control. I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real obligations. Why don't you start there.

Seven, ACORN. I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes. Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census over with our taxpayer money. I don't trust them with our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, hello. Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people. Investigate.

Eight, redistribution of wealth. No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs. That is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor person. Why do you want me to hate my employers? Why &#8209;&#8209; what do you have against shareholders making a profit?

Nine, charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.

Ten, corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we'll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful. Have you ever ripped off a Band&#8209;Aid? We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.

Eleven, transparency and accountability. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let's have it. Let's say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please try &#8209;&#8209; please stop manipulating and trying to appease me with clever wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around and meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me.

Twelve, unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now.

Take a breath. Listen to the people. Let's just slow down and get some input from some nonpoliticians on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed reading our bills into law. I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I'm busy. I'm busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.

I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution. I believed in the checks and balances to keep from getting far off course. What happened? You are very far off course. Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to unintelligently ramble all through a bill that you signed into law without knowing what it contained? I do not. It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face. I am not laughing at your arrogance. Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it but you should expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children. We did not want the TARP bill. We said no. We would repeal it if we could. I am sure that we still cannot. There is such urgency and recklessness in all of the recent spending.

From my perspective, it seems that all of you have gone insane. I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us. We want our voice back. You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess that you are making. We will have to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on you to bring our concerns to Washington. Our president often knows all the right buzzword is unsustainable. Well, no kidding. How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don't want your overpriced words. Stop treating us like we're morons.

We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job we want done, not the job you want done or the job your party wants done. You work for us and at this rate I guarantee you not for long because we are coming. We will be heard and we will be represented. You think we're so busy with our lives that we will never come for you? We are the formerly silent majority, all of us who quietly work , pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone and we are now looking up at you. You have awakened us, the patriotic spirit so strong and so powerful that it had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may surprise you. For every one of us who will be there, there will be hundreds more that could not come. Unlike you, we have their trust. We will represent them honestly, rest assured. They will be at the polls on voting day to usher you out of office. We have cancelled vacations. We will use our last few dollars saved. We will find the representation among us and a grassroots campaign will flourish. We didn't ask for this fight. But the gloves are coming off. We do not come in violence, but we are angry. You will represent us or you will be replaced with someone who will. There are candidates among us when hewill rise like a Phoenix from the ashes that you have made of our constitution.

Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this. We don't care. Political parties are meaningless to us. Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution and that is all that matters to us now. We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more. It is not your power. It is ours and we want it back. We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable. You are dishonest. As Americans we are ashamed of you. You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired. Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them. Because we will get you fired and they will not save you. If you do or can represent me, my issues, my views, please stand up. Make your identity known. You need to make some noise about it. Speak up. I need to know who you are. If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will replace the whole damn congress if need be one by one. We are coming. Are we coming for you? Who do you represent? What do you represent? Listen. Because we are coming. We the people are coming.

Her name is Janet Contreras,Bill.Why do you think it has to be a right wing talk show host?Maybe you are so myopic from living in Canada,that you have forgotten what being an American means...... (rant mode off)

Authentication issues aside (I, too, find the letter a bit too polished for "just a simple mother and grandmother", acc. to Glenn Beck, and you couldn't have picked a more suspiciously perfect last name with $250,000 worth of focus groups) she raises a number of points worthy of serious discussion. Too bad she then ruins it by insisting on a "solution" which prevents any discussion at all.

This country faces a larger-than-usual number of serious problems. The best solutions would come from dialogue and negotiation and compromise, not from yet more confrontation and "opting-out". We've had too much of that already. "We're mad as hell and we're going to march on Washington!!" Great way to make a point, or score a few, but horrible way to make policy.

Marching to the castle with torches and pitchforks never helped the townspeople in old horror movies. It won't do any better for disgruntled voters now. This woman would put her considerable talents to better use by working with a think-tank to develop workable solutions than by fanning the flames of anger.

LOL, you guys crack me up. Someone makes a clear and concise argument against the current Government folly and your first instinct is to cast doubt and aspersions on the source. Good job guys. I hope your pigeon holes are comfy.

Bob, I have a LOT of reservations about our current government, as do many other voters (e.g., http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090618/pl_nm/us_obama_polls_1). Long before Obama took office I said I wouldn't give him a free ride and I don't. Nor am I happy with everything coming out of Congress. I think the climate bill, in particular, stinks -- the worst of all worlds, a total piece of crap which will do nothing for global warming but will open up many new avenues for industry to lobby the government.

My problem isn't with this lady's positions, it is with her proposed solutions. All she offers is: be angry, stonewall on all change, march on Washington, scare the crap out of the politicians. Real problems need real solutions. Negotiated compromise is the only way forward. Screaming from the barricades does not make effective policy.

Last night I carpooled to brewclub meeting with a guy who does tax analysis for our state Senate, kind of like the CBO but for CT, so we talked about state government for 45min. Our state has a $8B deficit right now and no idea how to close the gap. Everyone has dug in on their respective positions and there is no possibility of compromise or negotiation. Ernie said, "This is my 21st legislative session and I have never seen it this bad. People won't even talk to the 'other side' in the hallways. Total gridlock. Nothing is getting done. We won't have a budget, so we'll drift into emergency continuing resolutions and everything will just get worse." What we need, at all levels of government, is a little more give and take. Venting and marching don't help.

I don't object to the sentiments expressed (I even agree with a couple of them), although I think the actions advocated do very little to further a solution. It's more that the letter seems so completely aligned with the current talking points of the right wing media that it could easily have been invented. If indeed there is a "simple mother and grandmother" named Janet Contreras who wrote this (and I'd like to learn more about her identity), she would make a better (and more authentic if she really exists) spokesperson than "Joe the Plumber."

Government and taxes seem to be having problems everywhere. The idea of living within our means isn't just for the tax payer. Here in small town/county Georgia, we made a statement to our representatives. The scare tactics of cuts to the most used and visible services are not going to work this time.

It is widely understood, by BOTH SIDES, that this had to be done to prevent a depression. The great depression is believed to have been a result of Hoover trying to balance the budget in the face of a recession. It did not work. Taking shots at such spending is cheap. Nobody is pleased at doing it, but the alternative was worse. Do you have info to the contrary?

I am still waiting for evidence that the Porkulous Bill has done any good. So far, absolutely NOTHING has changed for the better, except of course, the numbers of "saved jobs" that Obama seems to have conjured up with pixie dust and potpourri

The "good" done so far seems to be that the spiral has slowed, as it has to do before stopping for a recovery. Then though, some are only capable of thinking that nothing has happened unless an instant recovery has occurred. Great ships don't change course instantly. It requires analog thinking to understand this sort of thing.

Thank you for the link. It wasn't available when I searched on Thursday. I'm gratified that she is real. I do believe she is an avid right wing talk show listener/viewer, but I wouldn't hold that against her of and by itself. Again the issue I have with her letter is the lack of solutions other than venting her frustration.

"Take a breath. Listen to the people. Let's just slow down and get some input from some nonpoliticians on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed reading our bills into law."

Think for a minute Bill how you would feel if the Republicans were in control of all three houses and were ram-rodding all their wet-deram legislation down everyone's throats.

Also, I find it humorous that in the same breath you say " I do believe she is an avid right wing talk show listener/viewer, but I wouldn't hold that against her" May as well have said, I think she's gay, not that there is anything wrong with that...

Bob, I vigorously defend the rights of Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity, etc. to the airwaves, but I believe their contribution (and a few of those on the other end of the political spectrum) to the national dialog is limited primarily to bombast and naysaying. I don't see how they are furthering the compromise and solutions that are required for the problems we face.

"I don't see how they are furthering the compromise and solutions that are required for the problems we face."

Compromise? Just exactly what compromise are you speaking of? The Dems are in full power and absolutely refuse to hear a single word from the Right. The Dems will have their way on just about every issue facing them. The only thing that they could be possibly afraid of is their own success. Once they get all their Socialist pet project legislation passed, and the people finally see the Dems for the Commies that they really are, they will lose power faster than Obama went back on his promises of transparency.

There you go, Bob. You and the right wing talk show hosts would rather engage in name calling and bloviating than having a less emotionally charged discussion and working toward solving the serious problems we face. To be fair, there are some at the other end of the spectrum about whom I would make the same claim. My continued point is that this kind of rhetoric and polarization have become major obstacles that prevent solutions. I don't believe you realize that you have become part of the problem.